Probiotics?

Lillie,

I had terrible diarrhea with taxol, I mean seriously thinking of moving my office into the toilet. Nothing seemed to do any good. I have taken a probiotic for years just for general good health reasons. Somewhere about 2 wks before I finshed my 12 Taxol/herceptins I wondered what would happen if I upped my probiotic dosage, so instead of two once a day I started taking 2 capsules 3x a day..for a total of 6..bingo, problem solved. I was shocked and would be kicking myself that I hadn't thought of this sooner except I was already sore enough back there.

I told my MO who took note of it, as something to tell his other patients, and my MO at UCSF who is head of the bc unit there, she noted it too. Also my oncology nurse was impressed that it worked, and was going to tell other patients they might try that. So far now that I have moved on to herceptin alone I have no constipation problems, as I told my doc, I have yet to meet the medicine that plugs me up.

Where do you buy the Raw brand?? Thanks!!

Special K, yes I think that's it. They have for women, for women 50+ and for men.

Mairs, I get it from Whole Foods. It's expensive

There is a prescription one called VLS#3 DS. It comes in a powder and needs to be refrigerated. I've been using the reg strength caplets - not the DS (got some samples) and it seems to have helped with diarrhea but I'm going to increase my dosage to the double strength and see if that regulates me better.

I've had success with Nature's Way Optima (I use the Colon Support one). I buy it from my local health food store in the refrigerated vitamin section. I agree, the good probiotics are expensive! But worth it, I think.

I was never constipated during chemo, only had the Big D and it lasted for 10 days following each infusion. This seemed to continue on Herceptin only until I started a probiotic. Problem solved

maryjc - not for a bit, but I had enough at about 4 months to go without a wig, and I had actually cut it several times.  I never wore scarves or went without anything on my head or hats when I left the house - only a wig or the hairpiece I had made.  I finished chemo on 6/2 (still on Herceptin) and here is a pic from October - so 4.5 months later.  I colored my hair blonde prior to chemo (the color in my avatar is post-chemo, same as before) but my "natural" color is salt and pepper - heavy on the salt.  I had not seen my whole head be gray because I had been coloring it for so long, lol!  It was a bit of a shock!

My avatar pic is from about 18 months post-chemo with many haircuts, and my hair is now this length - this pic is from Jan of 2014, so less than three years, but with many haircuts - probably at least 6-8 inches of growth.  It would be much longer if I did not cut it monthly.

thanks for the info on probiotics. Was just recently wondering if I could take them.

Good luck with hair. It seems to take a long time to get to about 2 inches. You can make a style at 2 inches.thats where I am at. I think I will keep it real short.